Does Social Media work for the Enterprise?

1. Read this and 2. answer this question

1. A must-readfrom JeremiahMy friend Jeremiah posted his manifesto (as Shel calls it) on Customer Reference Programs. Working at marketing agencies, I’ve had a ringside view of how customer references work presently and I agree that it’s time for the evolution of customer references.

Jeremiah gives us an insightful train of thought capturing the past, present and future of customer references with a generous sprinkling of how social media is going to transform the industry. Couldn’t agree more with J, however I’ve a question…

2. Is your product, Social Media Friendly?
I’ve dabbled in this philosophy in the past, and the more I focus on it, it seems to me that there’s a distinguishable difference between the corporate marketing of:

If social media is the aggregation of “online tools that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other”, then I don’t see how the enterprise customer (read execs) has the time/inclination to generate content sharing their take on how their most recently purchased server or database amplified the brand or increased sales?

SHARE WITH FRIENDS:

6 Responses

M.
Meaningful direct conversations between tech producers and enterprise customers will mostly involve questions and answers regarding new/requested features. But there won’t be that much volume there in comparison to…

Enterprise user groups, where the community benefits from the vast collective intelligence. This is where the passion for using the product lies and where real needs are met in a very agile and responsive environment. Usenet, discussion boards, and now corporate branded social networks (see Leverage Software) are the mediums.

Well, Mario, I agree discussion forums and corporate branded social networks are definitely going to be the mainstay of enterprise customer references.

Jeremiah gives some great examples of those forums and wikis. However, I don’t see social media play out in the traditional sense of the term. Customer Reference Programs are going to evolve from case studies and white papers, to corporate podcasts and corporate vodcasts. No doubt about it.

I don’t see user generated content becoming a mainstay of enterprise social media. Just my 2 cents.

[…] Posted by Mario Sundar in corporate marketing, conferences. trackback I’m actually tired of asking the same question time and again over the past year. However, two recent research articles prove that corporations […]